Fishko Files

Music producer Hal Willner presents a free outdoor concert tomorrow night, featuring the work of one of his favorite composers, Nino Rota. As WNYC's Sara Fishko tells us, Willner's musical life began while LPs were still spinning out a rich musical menu. More, in this edition of Fishko Files.

Lincoln Center Out of Doors presents Hal Willner's Amarcord Nino Rota, as well as Rota's scores from the first two Godfather films, tomorrow, July 27.

The new release of Amarcord Nino Rota is now available online from Corbett vs. Dempsey.

Willner's Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill and Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films are available on Amazon.

It's 75 years since the publication of one of author James M. Cain's major claims to fame: Double Indemnity, the crime novel that was adapted by Raymond Chandler for the celebrated film directed by Billy Wilder. Guests Eddie Muller and David Madden help Sara Fishko sort out the impact of Cain's style in this archival Fishko Files. (Produced in 2011)

It's 125 years this year since the birth of classical guitar virtuoso Andres Segovia in Linares, Spain (1893). Segovia's sound, technique, phrasing, and choice of repertoire changed the face of the instrument. He also changed the career of guitarist Eliot Fisk, the guest on this edition Fishko Files. (Produced in 2002)

Henry Butler, the extraordinary New Orleans pianist, arranger and composer, died Monday of cancer. Butler, blind from infancy, began studying piano as a child, playing classical music. He said he switched to jazz because it relied less on printed notes - though he was fluent in every piano style. He studied with musician Alvin Batiste, whom he considered a mentor, and was also a student of two pioneer New Orleans pianists: Henry Roeland Byrd, known as "Professor Longhair," and James Booker, known as the "Bayou Maharajah" - but Butler developed a complex, rhythmic "three-handed" piano sound that was completely his own. Henry Butler lived in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina, after which he relocated to Denver, and later Brooklyn. He was 69.

In the year before Katrina, WNYC's Sara Fishko traveled to New Orleans along with engineer Edward Haber for a long interview with Butler, who was seated at the piano throughout. (Produced in 2005)

Sara Fishko's hour-long special on Henry Butler can be heard here.

Some of the wittiest, most sophisticated comedies of the 1920s, '30s, and '40s, WNYC's Sara Fishko tells us, were directed by Ernst Lubitsch - who was the idol of his fellow directors during Hollywood's Golden Age. A new book aims to re-introduce us to his films. More, in this episode of Fishko Files.

Joseph McBride's book How Did Lubitsch Do It? is available now from Columbia University Press and on Amazon.

In honor of summer, the season for great outdoor music of many kinds, this archival Fishko Files considers the combined forces of jazz and classical musicians, and their efforts - dating back to almost the moment jazz appeared - to make harmonious combinations of both styles. (Produced in 2010 on the occasion of the debut of "Swing Symphony" by Wynton Marsalis)

It’s 65 years since film composer Miklós Rózsa composed his violin concerto, written in response to Jascha Heifetz's request. In honor of Rózsa's command of both movie music and classical composition, here's this archival Fishko Files. (Produced in 2000)

This week, our thoughts turn to a behind-the-scenes Serbian cinematic poet whose contribution to film fit in between the major scenes of Golden Age Hollywood movies. Sara Fishko, with commentary by the late film critic Andrew Sarris, considers the master of the old-school "montage," Slavko Vorkapich.

It’s nearly 20 years since the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition created a “spin-off”: The Van Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition, a formidable contest for certified non-professionals. Sara Fishko went to visit the Cliburn in Fort Worth, Texas, and this Fishko Files on practice is the result. (Produced in 2000)

The next edition of the Cliburn Amateur competition will be held in 2020.

The Russian-born composer Sergei Rachmaninoff died in the spring of 1943, 75 years ago, in Beverly Hills. In this archival edition of Fishko Files, three concert pianists celebrate the beauty and the alarming technical difficulty of this Russian musician's compositions - as well as his own spellbinding piano playing. With Ruth Laredo, Earl Wild, and Misha Dichter. (Produced in 2001)